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The Scarlet Letter: Puritan Imagery

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In the second chapter of The Scarlet Letter, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the narrator employs a critical yet interested attitude toward the Puritans. This, combined with imagery and diction, has enabled the narrator to effectively describe the practices and beliefs of a traditional Puritan society. In the first part of this passage, one can see the use of imagery is very prominent. By describing the community gathered around with “their eyes intently fastened” on the prison door, the reader can infer that the narrator takes an interest in the doings of the Puritans in Boston. This is probably because the author was born in Salem, a major Puritan settlement in the early 1600s. Because he was a descendant of early Puritans, Hawthorne

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